Disgraced MEP could keep £500,000 in 'unjustified' expenses

Disgraced MEP, Den Dover, could get to keep more than £500,000 in "unjustified" expense payments when he retires from the European Parliament next month.

Den Dover, the disgraced former Tory MEP, has been awarded a medal for his "vital contribution" to the public despite a European Parliament demand that he return £538,290 in "unduly paid" expenses.

By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels

7:30AM BST 10 Apr 2009

There is growing anger among MEPs that after five months the Parliament has failed to take any action to recover the money involved in the most high-profile scandal involving allowances in Europe.

Despite having not paid back the funds, Mr Dover, aged 71, will also be entitled to six months pay, worth up to £79,000 with allowances and a full pension, worth up to £35,000 a year, when he stands down as a North-West MEP on May 7.

Last November, the Conservatives suspended and then expelled Mr Dover for "gross misconduct" after the parliament wrote to him asking him to pay back over £500,000 in "unjustified" allowances.

Mr Dover had denied any wrongdoing over payments of £760,000 in staff allowances that were made to a family firm between 1999 and Nov 2008.

He used a family-owned company, MP Holdings, as the "service provider" for secretarial and parliamentary assistant work, carried out by his wife and daughter, and paid for by the parliament.

Related Articles

Since 1999, £271,692 was paid to the directors, his wife and daughter. It also emerged that 57 per cent of the company's "tangible assets" in 2007 were motor vehicles, worth £63,517. Since 1999, the company has spent £56,411 on motoring expenses. In 2001 and 2002, the company also spent a total of £32,462 on "repairs".

After an investigation, the parliament wrote to him saying the claims were paid "without justification" and asked him to reimburse the money.

Chris Davies, a British Liberal Democrat Euro-MP, has written to the parliament's secretary general Klaus Welle demanding action.

"What are the ultimate sanctions that the Parliament can impose upon a member in circumstances of this kind?," he asked.".

Mr Davies, who represents the same North West region as Mr Dover, says he has been asked by constituents whether his colleague has repaid the money demanded by the parliamentary authorities.

"I want the authorities to show that they will have no truck with the abuse of expenses, and I want to be able to tell taxpayers that we've got the money back," he said.

Mr Dover has declined to discuss the question of repayment.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that senior sources are dismayed that the situation will give the perception, ahead of European elections in June, that the parliament does not take the issue seriously.

"Does this show that there is a culture of impunity for MEPs? Why haven't the authorities at least docked his wages?," said a source.

Officials have noted that no deductions have been made from Mr Dover's wages and that even if his entire salary was docked, from Nov last year until Dec 2009, less than 15 per cent of the cash would have been paid back.

A European Parliament spokeswoman said: "We do not give information on the cases of individual MEPs."